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Pope Francis, The Apology, and the optics of performative penitence

Pope Francis, The Apology, and the optics of performative penitence

  Gosh, that was some “penitential pilgrimage,” wasn’t it? Now that his visit to Canada is over, Pope Francis must be counting his blessings. After all, the historic and long-awaited papal apology on native land—an act of contrition for the terrible injustices that Indigenous children experienced in Church-run residential schools—went off pretty much as he might have planned it. His Holiness enjoyed saturation media coverage during a slow news week in the host country (even…

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So, how do you like him now?

So, how do you like him now?

  The people knew nothing about Putin. And in three months he became president. Of course, we thought it was cool. We thought we’d saved the country from the Communists, from Primakov and Luzhkov. But now it’s not clear which outcome would have been worse. —Former Kremlin banker Sergei Pugachev, quoted in Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on The West, by Catherine Belton (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020)  …

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Reading in 2021: A selection

Reading in 2021: A selection

  After a first pandemic year in which I buried myself in novels and non-fiction for much of the time I wasn’t working, I didn’t expect to read more books in 2021. But that’s what happened. What follows is a sampling, with the usual eclectic mix of subject matter. If you’re looking for titles about the world’s biggest health issue, though, you’ve come to the wrong place: I didn’t read a single book about the…

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Double Karma – A Novel

Double Karma – A Novel

May 28, 2021 It’s a deal! I’m very pleased to announce that Marc Côté and Cormorant Books will be publishing my first novel, Double Karma, in Spring 2023. The publishing deal was posted on Quill & Quire’s website on May 27 with the following notice: “Cormorant Books’ Marc Côté has acquired world, dramatic, and audio rights to Daniel Gawthrop’s Double Karma. The first novel from the five-time nonfiction author is described as the story of…

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